Glocalized New Age Spirituality: a Mental Map of the New Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv, deciphered through its visual codes and based on ethno-visual research

Abstract

We present here the findings of an ethno-visual research study involving the creation of a mental map of images, artifacts and practices in Tel Aviv’s New Central Bus Station. This huge and complex building, part bus station, part shopping mall, has become a stage for multi-cultural encounters and interactions among diverse communities of users. Hundreds of photographs representing the visual culture were methodically taken on the site and in its surroundings. A semiotic analysis of these photographs has revealed a glocalized version of New Age spirituality based mainly on the visual codes extracted from local New Age expressions and hybridity. This New Age cultural version dominant in the station has marginalized the “official folk culture” previously diffused as Israeli main stream culture.